Red Bend raises $10M as it targets WiMAX market - Boston Business Journal:

humojo.wordpress.com
The investment round was the Waltham company'ds first in three yearw and will be used to beef up its sales and marketingt staff as it targets the younvg but growingWiMAX (worldwide interoperabilityy for microwave access) sector. The technologgy has mainly been used by computert users to access the Internet from PCs and but as the segment expandes it is increasingly being appliedf to supportmany smaller, handheld "We just saw this as a natural move for us as a company," said Red Bend CEO Yoraj Salinger. The funding -- which included prior investors of Coral Capital Management of Carmel Venturesof Israel, San Calif.
-based Pitango Venture Capital and Infinity of New York City -- will be used to boosr its head count, now 85 people, as well as its researcuh and development efforts. Red Bend is alreadhy considered a market leader in providingh products that enable wireless carriersz toupdate mobile-phone software without having customers visit stores or return theitr phones to the company. Of the more than 114 millio cell phones shipped withthis so-callerd Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) technology during the third quarter of 2007, Red Bend represented 49 percent of the market. That shar put it ahead of competitors (NYSE: HPQ) and , accordinyg to research firm .
Red Bend has raisec $39 million in venturs funds to date. Salinger declined to disclose revenued but said the company should reach profitability this Salinger saidthe nine-year-old company was initialluy focused on one sector, namely the cell phon market. But in recent years, Red Bend has enterex new segments, including WiMAX. In February, the company's productd were chosen by Chinese telecommunicationws company to manage software updates toWiMAs devices. It will take time for the WiMAz marketto grow, Salinger said. "The adoption will be a bit but it should pick up as more wireless carriersw use it to connect devices tothe Internet, he said.
Berge Ayvazianchief, chief strategy officer at Boston-basedr research firm the , said the WiMAd market is fairly small but will grow rapidlyg over the next few Red Bendis "catching the market opportunity at the righ t time," he said.